Neveria La Tropicana

I LOVE ICE CREAM & this place is part of my stomping grounds! I don’t like the place itself; always crowded with somewhat rude people & the staff no longer gives you samples of their flavors, but because I go so often, I already know what I like. Locals often come with coolers to take home big orders. They also cater though it sounds to me like they’re not great at it yet. Still, despite the hooplah, I love their chocolate paletas & their ricotta cheese ice cream (yes, cheese ice cream)!

They ladle hot nacho cheese into bags of Flamin Hot Cheetos and call it Cheetos con queso! That is awesome. And disgusting. And I let my kid have it, but that shit would kill me. But it’s still awesome.
This is a bustling snack and ice cream shop and even though I have taken approximately nine years of various Spanish classes in my life, I still can’t figure out much of what is sold here, because everything is either in Slanglish or not labeled at all — including a bunch of the ice cream flavors. A few of the counter staff speak English, but it gets really busy and when you get a person you need to start ordering, especially when it’s hot, so…
I’ll give you a helpful, small primer. Print this out and take it with you the next time you want ice cream or a bag filled with Cheetos and screaming hot cheese:
queso=cheese (available both as an ice cream flavor and con Cheetos)
fresa=strawberry
cereza=cherry
piñón=like butter pecan
galleta=like cookies and cream or Oreo
tequila=tequila!
elote-​corn
rompopo=like rum raisin with nuts in it and then more rum
Cheetos=Cheetos
other flavors like chocolate (chocolate means chocolate and coco means coconut) and pina-​colada, etc should be self explanatory, except for fruits like mamey and guanavana that people eat in Mexico and not so much here, so you’re just going to have to try them, because there’s not really an English translation for them other than that.
They have a big case of the Mexican popsicles (paletas) that street vendors have, but these are kind of different, because the have things like a whole strawberry or a hunk of fudge stuck on the stick too. More treats is better than fewer treats. Always.
You’ll just have to figure out the rest, but thank you is «gracias» and please is «por favor» and that will get you far in the world of snackery;) The prices are very low and you can get a sundae in a cantaloupe half. Discoveries await…
(ps-​Yelp spell check needs to learn Espanol)